Rock News

Eddie Van Halen once asked to join KISS

Gene Simmons tells "Guitar World" the Van Halen guitarist approached him about joining KISS, "and he was very serious" about it. Simmons explains it was in the early 1980s, a few years before singer David Lee Roth left Van Halen.

Gene says Eddie "was so unhappy about how he and Roth were -- or weren't -- getting along," so Eddie took him to lunch at a diner in Los Angeles and made a pitch to join KISS.

At the time KISS was having their own lineup changes, but Simmons says he talked Eddie out of the idea. He remembers telling Eddie there wasn't "enough room" for him in KISS, and that Eddie wouldn't "be happy in KISS," because he needed to be in a band where he could "direct the music."

Simmons adds that a third person was with them at the diner. He says guitarist Vinnie Vincent -- who "wasn't yet in KISS" -- was a "sneaky guy" and "tagged along" for Gene's lunch with Eddie. Vincent ended up becoming KISS' new guitarist.